The northeast fell even faster, if you can believe that. I entered AREWEALONE for "Question of humanity that has never been answered" and HEARS for "Gets word" right off both clues. I thought the latter was an especially apt C/AP. Add STAPLES for "Big box store that sells boxes" to get STAPH and fill in ARENA, and before you know it a solver PENETRATES a quadrant.
In the southeast, I was helped by having recently completed some older crossword puzzles in a book my aunt had. I didn't know Martin RITT, but as he just appeared in one of those puzzles, I was able to enter his name, which helped with the unusual - to me - NUTLETS - crazy word, but kinda cute. In the southwest, 'PICS' appeared again in the as part of WAREPICS ("'Saving Private Ryan' or 'Apocalypse Now'"), which my brain insisted on parsing as WARE PICS. Derp.
And speaking of apt, "Sickens with sweetness" for CLOYS I thought was apt. Apt! More so than even READE as a surname for a librarian, because I happen to know that not all librarians take a book. "Kowtowed (to)" and (TOADIEDUP) are fun words on both the C & A sides, although I can't say I've ever heard the preposition "up" used with toadied.
My favorite clue today was "Superhero misidentification" (ITSAPLANE). Hi - lar - i - ous. I'm on the fence about SOOTS as a verb for "covers with chimney grime. It seems like a bit of a stretch, but it also seems somehow to suit. Fill-wise, I liked VETOPOWER, SIDEBAR, CLOSEINON, and RIFER - you don't see that word every day.
I'm sure, Dear Readers, that you are all agog to find out what happened in the northwest. The short of it is that despite all the Down answers I had, I couldn't complete the top left section. Here's why: I guessed 'grEeNBLUE' for "Water color" at 15A and since the 'green' part fit with two Down clues that I was pretty confident of, and, it seemed to match the clue, it took me quite a while to decide to take it out. Once I did, and with HOTTOPICS ("Everyone's talking about them") finally filled in, I was able to see the trixy answer HOST for "Hope at the Oscars, e.g." and the rest, as they say, is history.
~Frannie.
Enjoyed this one a lot. The cluing is fantastic...and for some reason I absolutely fell in love with NUTLETS!
ReplyDeleteI don't know... I like HOTTOPICS, OCEANBLUE, AREWEALONE, and a few others, but I didn't love ARTCINE, SOOTS, RIFER, TOADIEDUP, or TRUEST. OTO, OCTA, and THROMBI aren't all that scintillating either. I'm conflicted, but come down on the "Didn't love it so much" side. But hey, de gustibus non disputandem est, eh?
ReplyDeleteUnicuique suum, Horace o' mine!
DeleteI guess I'm somewhere in between. Frances has nailed the star of the show, that's for sure: ITSAPLANE and its clue are fabulous. I also love CLIENTELE for "patronizing types," both for the clever mis-direction and for the plural to singular switcheroo. OCEANBLUE is kind of cool to me. That's not really a color, is it? So the answer works literally--almost by definition. That bay is ocean blue! (What else could it be?) Speaking obliquely of bays, nice to see TIOGA in the middle of the puzzle too. Not at all crazy about the clue for STALEJOKE. Since when is "routine" stale?? I also do not enjoy seeing Apocalypse Now in the same sentence (OK, clue) as Saving Private Ryan. One is EPIC and great, the latter is not. Agree that ARTCINE (what?!) is weak. How about CTSCANNER?? Nobody adds that suffix, do they? Overall, thumbs up for ITSAPLANE and for being reminded who wrote The Art of War. I should know things like that.
ReplyDeleteWell, I add "scanner" to CT when I'm speaking about the actual machine, as opposed to the radiologic test, but that's inside tech speak, I guess. I also fell into the ___PICS trap described above, for both answers.
ReplyDeleteNo, I'd call that doctor-speak, which means it is indeed a thing. I stand corrected. Thank you.
Delete